The Houston Rockets one of the Biggest Losers in this year’s NBA Free Agency...so far...

The Houston Rockets won’t match Dallas’ offer sheet for Chandler Parsons. With the news that LeBron James had chosen to leave the Heat and return to Cleveland and amid ongoing talks with Bosh and his agent, the Rockets moved in to swipe the power forward of their dreams from the Heat.

They even attached a first-round pick to Jeremy Lin and agreed to send them to the Lakers, purging Lin’s contract from the roster just as they had agreed to ship out Omer Asik’s. Then Bosh turned around and headed back to Miami, taking a five-year $118 million max offer worth roughly $33 million more than the Rockets could offer over four seasons.

After striking out with Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, the Rockets were turning their attention to lesser-known free agents such as Luol Deng. Since James announced his decision to return to Cleveland, the Heat have been nothing but aggressive in the free agent market. As of Monday, Miami has agreed to terms with forward Luol Deng with a two-year, $20 million deal.

The Houston Rockets had big plans for the summer of 2014. But so far, the biggest free agents on the NBA market have chosen to take their talents far away from the Bayou City.

Anthony will sign a five-year, $120 million deal to stay with the New York Knicks, likely for the rest of his career. The Rockets were just one of several teams pitching to Anthony, one of the best offensive players in the league. Missing out on signing him wasn’t a huge surprise, so Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had a back-up plan in Bosh, who is coming off two championships with the Miami Heat.

Even with all of the top free agents taken out of the running, the Rockets still had the chance to re-sign one of their breakout players from 2014, Chandler Parsons. But on July 13, the Dallas Mavericks offered Chandler Parsons, a four-year Rockets forward who had a breakout season in 2014, a three-year $46 million deal. The Rockets declined to match that offer.

Replacing Parsons will be Trevor Ariza, a veteran in his 10th NBA season, who the Rockets signed for four years and $32 million.

“I really appreciate the opportunity Houston gave me and I had three great years there,” Parsons told ESPN.com, “but I am really excited for the next chapter of my career in Dallas — to play with one of the greatest players in Dirk and a terrific owner in Mark Cuban.”

With the Mavericks deal, Parsons can become an unrestricted free agent at the age of 27. The Rockets could have kept Parsons on the final season of his rookie contract, worth just $964,000, but chose to not pick up the option on his contract to maintain the right to match any offer sheet he received. The 25-year-old Parsons averaged 16.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists this past season.

Parsons was drafted by Houston with the 38th overall pick in 2011.

The Rockets will turn their attention to Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. It is unclear what, if any, assets the Rockets have that might interest the Celtics, but Rondo has long been coveted by Houston.

They shipped out Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Lakers, respectively, and chose not to match Chandler Parsons’ offer sheet from the Dallas Mavericks. They also are thin on meaningful draft picks to deal. Still, a dearth of attractive trade chips is not preventing the Rockets from shooting for the stars. They also are interested in re-entering the Kevin Love sweepstakes, according to Stein. Love, like Rondo, is signed through the end of next season, although he can opt-in for an extra season next summer.